El Grafiti de Buenos Aires

Quick thoughts…

THOUGHT ONE
In our interview, Pum Pum had talked about how pop art was one of her influences, and it struck me how similar (at least superficially) the two forms are:
-Pop art appropriated the form of advertising and mass media to create “art”
-Graphic designers and artists in Argentina have appropriated the form of “graffiti” (that is, writing on the wall), which was/is a form of political mass media here, to create “posgrafiti”–a term some graffiteros like Gaulicho, as well as street art curators like Máximo Jacoby, prefer bc it is more open-ended than “graffiti,” which has too strong of links to the nyc hip-hop scene.

And both pop art and posgrafiti sought/seek to take what was “on the streets” into the gallery.

THOUGHT TWO
It seems that the people who don’t do political street art don’t because they don’t think it’s the place for politics. Politics taints things, taints art. Their art is often more “cartoony”; it’s purpose is to make people smile or laugh. In other words, it seems to be constitute a shift in society in which people have become sick of politics (in contrast to the populist Peronist movement, for which there was LOTS of political graffiti). Also, it seems to be a statement about the efficacy of public education

reforms, which have created this new generation of graphic designers or art students who want to take what they learn in the classroom out into the streets…
**Fun/interesting graffiti fact is that almost all those who do graffiti here, as in more than just scribbles but rather murals or pieces (advanced tags) are from middle-to-upper class backgrounds. Often they are university-educated.

TO COME
I’d really like to do a post with just quotes and photos.

Lots more to report (it’s been a good week for graffiti), but I’ll have to put it all together… But thanks to all the people I’ve recently met (gracias a todos a que recientemente conocí o encontré): kid gaucho; pum pum; guido indij; nico from vomito attack; máximo jacoby; dardo malatesta. (most are already on the thanks page with links to info about them… if not, it’s because i haven’t done any sort of interviewing yet, but hopefully will!)